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Jacket

18th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

A long sleeved jacket of white with a pattern of chevrons along the lower edge, the front edges, the centre back and the inner and outer sleeve, made up of knit, purl and moss stitches. The waist is shaped with gores made by decreases. The back and front are knit in one piece, dividing at the sleeves and knit together at the shoulders. The sleeves are made from stitches from the main body and picked up from the front and back and knit to the wrist. The front edges are bound with a 6mm wide strip of linen.

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read Knitted underwear Whether socks or swimwear, long johns or leggings, knitting has been as important to what we put on under our clothes as to the clothes themselves. Some of the earliest knitted items were underwear and the growth of the machine-knitting industry was based on underwear's popularity. Even on...

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Hand knit with two-ply white cotton yarn.
Brief description
A jacket knitted in white cotton, probably 18th century, English for an adult
Physical description
A long sleeved jacket of white with a pattern of chevrons along the lower edge, the front edges, the centre back and the inner and outer sleeve, made up of knit, purl and moss stitches. The waist is shaped with gores made by decreases. The back and front are knit in one piece, dividing at the sleeves and knit together at the shoulders. The sleeves are made from stitches from the main body and picked up from the front and back and knit to the wrist. The front edges are bound with a 6mm wide strip of linen.
Dimensions
  • Overall, flat length: 68.2cm
  • Overall, flat width: 125cm
  • Chest circumference: 83.5cm
Credit line
Given by Mr Eric Bullivant
Historical context
Probably an item of underwear and could have been worn by a man or a woman. Its decorative pattern is identical to that of a baby's jacket, T.30-1932, and may have formed part of a layette to be worn by a pregnant or nursing woman
Bibliographic references
  • Hinchcliffe, Frances (ed.), Knit One, Purl One : Historic and Contemporary Knitting from the V&A's Collection. V&A, London, 1985
  • Historical Fashion in Detail The 17th and 18th Centuries
Collection
Accession number
T.61-1939

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Record createdFebruary 16, 1999
Record URL
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